Forgotten Hope 2 News - Christmas Event

RAnDOOm · Monday at 09:50 AM

Christmas Event

Posted by: Guarnere, Matt Baker and Eat Uranium

15.12.2024 20:00 GMT

Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update.

Firstly we would like to thank everyone who had voted for us in the first round of ModDB's Mod of the Year competition again. We have once again made it to the second round of voting among the Top 100 Mods. We would once again be very thankful for any votes that you might want to send our way.

We will be running another event over the Christmas season, bringing with it a few new maps made by the FH2 and CMP team. The event will run with the map list below over the following weeks:

Friday 20th December to Sunday 5th January

The map list will be the following official maps:

Bastongne
Eppeldorf
La Hardt Forest
Meuse River
Operation Mars
St. Vith

As well as the following new and updated maps:

Foy
Hatten Rittershoffen
Herrlisheim
La Gleize
Operation Little Saturn
The Storm
Valirisk
Verdenne

The Italian Vanghetta per fanteria Mod. 1907 was the standard spade issued to the Italian infantry through WW1 and WW2. This trench shovel is particularly characterized by having two tiny holes drilled in the blade. This tiny detail was to allow the shovel to be attached to the knapsack using a leather strap or to be attached to the frog that held both the rifle bayonet and the shovel. The Regio Esercito Italiano was one of a kind among other armies in using this carrying system. The Italian Vanguetta was also very popular among the Afrika Korps Pioniers, who also used it during the North African campaign. Ours was made by IvanWazowsky.

The No.36M Mk.I was an improved version of the World War 1 era No.36 Mk.I fragementation hand grenade. This defensive grenade, that became the British Army standard hand grenade in 1932 and through WWII, was designed with an oval body featuring a cast iron grooved pattern, a hand lever and a safety pin with a ring. The main improvements that differentiated it from the previous version were that it was waterproofed by coating with shellac. This chemical kept moisture and humidity out of the detonator's fuse, making it more efficient in tropical and hotter climates, hence, the letter "M" for "Mesopotamian" in its designation.

The green band paint in the center of the grenade indicated that was filled with a mixture of Baratol and Trotyl and the red "X's that was waterproofed. This family of grenades, starting with the No.5, followed by the No.23, to the present one, were nicknamed "Mills Bomb" from the name of its designer. The new WWII-period texture was added by CptBocquier, to the original model made by McGibs.

The Belgian Grenade Defensive Mills or Mills-Granaat was a defensive grenade used by the Belgian Army during WWI through WW2. They used the No.5, No.23 and No.36 versions with a blue and yellow band painted of them and they were filled with Tolite/Salpeter as explosive charge. During and after WW1, the Belgian Mills grenades were supplied by a large number of British manufacturers and there were still sufficient numbers to equip the Belgian Army in 1940.

The Grenade Offensive or O.F.-Granaat used the same thin sheet metal pressed oval body design as the French Grenade Offensive N°1. Nevertheless, the main visual feature was the large Belgian ACEC 38 fuze, manufactured by "Atelier de Costructions Electriques de Charleroi", located in Herstal. The model of the Belgian Mills Grenade was made by McGibs and the texture was added by Matt Baker. The Grenade Offensive was made by Seth Soldier.

When originally conceived in 1940 the requirements for the M1 Carbine called for a select fire gun that had the ability to operate in both semi-automatic and fully automatic configurations. As the design progressed this requirement was dropped and the mass produced version of the M1 Carbine became a semi-automatic weapon.

During the war, troops in the field (especially those in the Airborne and fighting in the Pacific) showed a real desire for a personal defense weapon that could utilize fully automatic fire in close quarters. This drove enterprising armorers to convert many M1 Carbines to fully automatic fire with field modifications. Anecdotal accounts relay numerous instances of veterans modifying their M1s by adding an auto-sear to the internal components to create an ad-hoc, fully automatic or select-fire carbine.

In May 1944 Winchester, Springfield Armory and Inland Manufacturing began developing a standardized group of components that could be added to an M1 Carbine to give it the select fire ability. Inland and Springfield eventually created the T17 and T18 conversion kits respectively. As these kits were tested in the field, the select fire carbines became known as T4 Carbines until October 1944 when the T4 project was officially adopted into the Carbine, Caliber .30, M2.

Our M1 Carbine was made by Seth Soldier and converted by Matt Baker.

On November 27th, 1944, Hitler ordered the creation of 20 to 30 Flammpanzer for the upcoming Unternehmen Nordwind. These flamethrower tanks were to be built on the existing chassis of available Panzer or Sturmgeschütz as quickly as possible. By December 3rd the Army reported back that a total of 30 to 35 Flammpanzer could be created by refurbishing at least ten Pz.Kpfw.III (Fl) and converting twenty Jagdpanzer 38(t).

The Jagdpanzer 38(t) were pulled from the Böhmisch-Mährische Maschinenfabrik (BMM) production line in December and subsequently displayed the later type of production modifications such as the flammvernichter muffler, removed armor guard for the driver’s periscopes and later type of idler wheels.

The main 7.5cm gun was removed and an armored plug was welded over the aperture with a hole that allowed the Köbe flamethrower a limited traverse and elevation. The weapon was aimed by way of a periscope of the same type used by the driver on the Panther G that was protected externally by a sheet metal cover.

Inside the vehicle was a tank with 700 liters of flame oil and a pump that allowed for approximately 60-70 bursts of fuel out to ~35-50 meters. This fuel was ignited using cartridges and ejected from the end of the nozzle that was covered by a two piece sheet metal shield. The Flammpanzer 38(t) retained the MG-34 ‘Reundumfeuer’ mount that allowed the crew to use the weapon while protected inside the vehicle, however this was likely relocated to the center of the roof to accommodate the rearranged hatch layout. The loader’s and commander’s hatches were retained in the same positions but a 3rd hatch was added to the front of the roof above the driver and gunner’s position. A fuel filler cap on the roof and an exhaust on the rear hull for the flame fuel pump engine was also added among other miscellaneous parts.

Two units were assembled for the Nordwind offensive in the form of the 352. & 353. Panzer-Flamm-Kompanien and subordinated to Army Group G for the Operation. Our original Jagdpanzer 38(t) was made by Toddel and the Flammpanzer modifications were made by Matt Baker.

Along with the previously announced wide repertoire of Willys MB variants, we also bring you the important version equipped with the .30 caliber Browning M1919A4 that was widely used in the US Infantry and Armored Divisions and their allies. Textures were made by Matt Baker and the original model was made by Rad and Toddel.

In the effort to try to represent in the most reliable way the different vehicles and assets present in the mod, the FH2 team has continued their research and documentation, successfully adding more new correctly historical sights for the different existing tanks and updating and correcting some others. These updates have been made by Seth Soldier and McCloskey with the help of Radiosmersh and Guarnere's research.

Reworked sights: